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September 20, 2008

G154: Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 3

Each starter struggled early -- and the Red Sox wasted three scoring chances.

In the first, Boston had runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs, then 1st and 3rd with one out, but could not score. They loaded the bases against Halladay (6-6-3-3-3, 106) with two outs in the fifth, but Jed Lowrie struck out. And facing Brandon League in the eighth, they had men at 1st and 2nd with one out, and came up empty yet again.

Toronto batted around in the second against Lester (7-8-5-3-4, 102). After that rough inning (he also allowed two hits and a run in the first), he settled down. Over the next five innings, he allowed only three singles and a walk -- and no Blue Jay runner got past second base. However, his teammates' bats could do much with the Toronto staff.

With one out in the third, Dustin Pedroia doubled and David Ortiz singled him home. One out later, Jason Bay homered to left to cut the score to 5-3.

The Yankees scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to beat Baltimore 1-0 and stave off YED for another 24 hours. Tampa Bay beat Minnesota 7-2, eliminating the Yankees from the AL East race.

I took some swings today [Friday] and it tightened up. ... [I'm] just wondering if the injury is healed, or if you just keep scratching at it like a scab and picking at it and it's not fully healing ... One day it's going to get better. I don't know what day it's going to be.

Colon went to the Dominican Republic earlier this week to tend to a personal matter and expressed a preference to stay there, rather than return to the Red Sox and serve as, at most, a long reliever or spot starter for the rest of the regular season.

Jacoby Ellsbury has a 10-game hitting streak (.351/.368/.486).

***

Today could be Yankee Elimination Day. If the Red Sox win and the Yankees lose (in the penultimate game at the 33-year-old "Yankee Stadium II"), then New York will be officially eliminated from both the division race and the wild card race.

In the YED contest, Joe Grav, redsauce04, and Bruce B all picked 0920. (However, Bruce picked 81 NYY wins in the tiebreaker and they have 83 right now, so he cannot win the tiebreaker; Joe has 88 and redsauce 87.)

I had such a long day yesterday that I barely lasted three innings for the game in the thread before I moved to the recliner, which really sped up the game. Fourth inning, a pitch later it's the fifth inning, then another couple pitches later it's the 8th, then the 9th. I liked the scoreboard though.

Nice how when OB said anyone holding out back then had better have some clout, Castig right away mentioned when Drysdale and Koufax held out together -- and still had to cave to the LA front office. So much for the clout/talent angle.

Also, in his 3rd(?) season, DiMaggio held out for more $ for most of spring training. He had to come crawling back to the Yanks and the hometown fans booed him the entire season.

I think they look at interest. Hard in New York because of the Yankees and Mets. But Mets fans are more interested in what the Brewers are doing than Yankees fans being interested in what Tampa's doing. Or Minnesota.

7-0 Rays in the 7th. It's actually better to win the WC. I just didn't figure out why yet...

BTW, even though I hate paying full price for a book (I'm a used book scavenger, myself), I bit the bullet and bought Supposedly Fun Thing for 15 bucks. Lord have mercy. Looking forward to reading it, once I finish with the Brothers K.